#the way i have like 50 stills from the show saved to draw for any time i have like a moment of not working on class work ughh when will i
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one thing i'm curious about is if you're currently reading / drawing inspiration from any other contemporary HS fanworks. i know KITTYQUEST just dropped its epilogue like less than a week ago, so it's definitely a big era for Homestuck Fanworks That Have Jade Harley Have Kids lmaoooo
i may talk a big game about how you can't hope to substantively discuss what homestuck *is* without also examining its fanworks, but unfortunately i am myself woefully under-read and out of date. i kinda stopped reading homestuck fanworks after 2020 because. well. at the risk of getting into the weeds of fandom drama. all the ones i really liked stopped updating when the fandom environment turned from passively toxic to aggressively poisonous, and there was at least a 50/50 chance that the creator of any given active fanwork was either with or supported the group of people who wielded that poison.
that feeling is far less prominent now but i am still skeptical any time a new homestuck fanwork gets popular. they have to pass a litmus test first: is this person shitty or weird about the epilogues/hs2? they don't have to have liked either work necessarily, they just have to acknowledge that those works exist, have influence, and are worth talking about, even if they personally don't want to do the talking. god this all sounds so petty, but people lost jobs over what happened. i don't think i can have a positive interaction with anyone who is simply unwilling to have an in-depth conversation about the contents of a text without feeling the need to pass objective moral judgments at every turn, nor do i think i will get much out of the fanworks such a person might produce. so i save us all the trouble and don't bother!
that said, i quite like Kittyquest. i'm way behind on it though, as i am on everything. that Kitty showed up not too long after Yiffy actually inspired me to create Edie, because i love the idea of "Jade's Daughter" being this extraordinarily flexible archetype. it feels like kind of a combo-breaker considering how rigid homestuck's archetypes typically are. i also very much admire Kittyquest's commitment to fleshing out the culture and history of Earth C, especially in the ways it seems to deliberately break from what we've seen of it in post-canon. the lack of worldbuilding the epilogues is one of its biggest weaknesses in my opinion, so i always like it when a story tries to pick up that slack. the artstyle being so divorced from homestuck's yet still somehow indebted to it really encouraged me to try different things with the types of images we started putting into godfeels. what i love about post-canon broadly is just how varied it is artistically, stylistically. i think it's good and compelling and healthy that so much art in this space is willing to play with these things in such constructive ways.
the other contemporary fanwork that really has influence on godfeels is Vast Error. which i am also behind on. but Snowbound Blood is a personal favorite whose tone (at its best) matches the vibes i'm going for in 3.2. the biggest i guess Thing for me wrt Vast Error is how different its universe engine session is from what we saw in homestuck. its logic, its mechanics, its purpose-- the whole thing is so alien, and yet it has Prospit and Derse, it has Spades Slick and other such guys, it has Skaia, so there's clear continuity. if we imagine the universe engine as a procedurally generated video game, these commonalities suggest that there are stable constants in the formula. it was that alongside all the other wildly different fansessions on MSPFA that started the gears turning which would eventually lead to the EWL. the idea of an organization of castoffs from the infinite fanontinuum of alternate sessions, who study the constants and variables across countless UE instances and build squads of sailors who specialize in particular behavioral clusters. oh this session has an overpowered Jack making it unviable? send in the Jills, they'll show him what's what.
i guess if there's a thread here it's that i'm most inspired by what metatextual trends suggest about the hypothetical Ultimate Self of any given homestuck narrative convention. i'm not saying that's a good thing but i guess it has worked out okay so far.
i could shout out other fanworks that i haven't read but i think i would rather hear from y'all. what's out there right now? what's good? i should probably catch up
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Trigun Maximum 2 Part 1
Time to dive into Vol. 2. (weeks to late, but I get there!)
Also, why does Nightow has the Shojo-Style from the 80s down to the t?
01: The return of the blue wind of death
Is he a prisoner that exchanges his imprisonment time for this task? Does he really think that he would work for his whole sentence of 830 years? It looks like the life expectancy is like 50 years max on No-Man’s-Land, with exceptions of course. So many young and middle aged men, but not very many old ones sitting in the pubs. Many children, many orphans and not enough people to take care of them. Those who get older seem to be in the crafts, like… uh… the shoemaker that was killed by Legato… Yeah…
The uniform reminds me of something… gimme a minute…
Ah! Fitting for a “western” the government dudes are dressed in the get-up from the US.Army from the American war. Wasn’t sure which side, but it is the U.S Army side, so they are at least not evil coded. 😀 Looks like something between a Sergeant, a Major or a Captain. But we shall never know which rank he has exactly. But the look fits with the whole genre!
Ah! Yaoi man! I know him! When I found the silly figurine on amazon I thought its head was too small… But I think I stand corrected.
But isn’t he -designwise- like a counterpart to Wolfwood? Hair gelled back, a white, immaculate suit, contrasting Wolfwood’s design of messy hair and a black suit, but they have the same tendency to not fully button the suit jacket up. Another thing, that we see later in the chapter, is a sense of selfpreservation that both share. Though the reason behind it seems different. Wolfwood needs to survive for his purpose, the protection of the orphanage, while Hornfreak just has a normal, human survival instinct. He may actually like being alive, even with being a killer.
The whole fight is interesting. Why did the commander send his men there? What happened? The owner of the property is not in town, so why is he even interested in that place? What does the occupation mean? How did they know? Then Hoppered warning the men about Legato and asking them to save themselves, which makes me ask if the army has any ulterior motives here.
Hooboy, Nightow knows when the reader's imagination is worse than whatever he can draw. We know what happens in the truck… We can imagine that… Not showing it makes it so much worse…
I love how we, the readers, see the impending danger to Home. We get to see the puppet fly, we get to connect the dots. Everyone else is unknowing. We already experience the tension, the foreboding. Which makes Vash staying away from Home so much more sad. He doesn’t allow himself to be welcome and feeling safe, because he knows he is hunted down. It still won’t keep his close ones safe.
02: Resume our Business
No way anyone forces Legato to eat like this! Legato is having a fucking pity party and punishes himself, because Knives was mad at him for trying to kill his brother. He does this to himself. He revels in the punishment. It is a theatrical play of how much he idolises Knives. And it is scary.
Hoppered being the sensible one. Dude, you seem so nice, what are you doing with those people!
Yeah, something snapped in Legato, when Knives punished him. Knives is such a fucking tyrant. “Hey, I punish you violently and over the top for wanting to fulfil my wishes, because I, without communicating it, changed my mind! And that is your mistake.” And Legato has to believe that, because if not it would mean his whole idolisation is wrong and that would destroy this man’s self. I pity him. Knives needs someone who stands up to his bullshit and Legato needs someone who actually cares about him. Both make each other worse!
And… while I like Hornfreak’s speech… As an assassin you don’t give a whole speech that announces that you want to kill your target! Especially since you know he has some kind of power, too! *headdesk* Well, get bretzel’d.
I think it is interesting how he starts by trying to connect to his other gun-ho-guns, but then turns around and distances himself from them by calling them “Maniacal killers”! He gives a whole speech to give reason to his betrayal and excuse it.
BDSM-Knives return! I think revenantghost already said this, but… Knives, if you are the reason people hunt Vash down… It is not the human’s fault that Vash suffers… Knives is fucking delusional... And selfreflection? Never heard of her!
Legato says: “That is his will. And it shall be done.”
And it reads like a fucking quote from the bible.
Acts “And since he would not be persuaded, we fell silent, remarking, “The will of the Lord be done!””
James “Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.””
Legato is idolising Knives so hard, he makes him his God.
And to counter this unhealthy behaviour, we have the dumbasses on the next page. Especially Wolfwood treating Vash like an equal human being. I love this whole skit!
Vash, you had your whole 150 years to learn how to drive anything! How did you survive, walking miles upon miles between the cities under the sun’s heat? You were run out of them so often! How did you get away quickly?
Liar by omission? Wolfwood? Nah! Liar by avoidance! He really just needs someone who does not stop asking and he would break down. But Vash does not do that. No one does!
Well, Rai-Dei literally spelled out that Wolfwood is part of the Gun-Ho-Guns, no denying that. They know each other, Rai-Dei says loudly that Wolfwood is “planning” something. And Wolfwood looks just so conflicted, maybe even near tears?
I am confused what Rai-Dei means by Vash’s “selfish ways”. Is it based on his bushido? The morals of the bushido changed with the eras, like there are different types. Some say to retreat from an unwinnable battle, while others say to stay until your death.
And Wolfwood, you know this guy! I am sure you already know that he is using a fucking blade against guns and fared splendidly enough to become a Gun-Ho-Gun… Wolfwood in this fight feels like fucking Speedwagon.
*snorts* Wolfwood tagging out and Vash calling him a “Demon Priest”. Peak comedy for me!
I love the change from the silliness to dark seriousness, when Rai-Dei nonchalantly tells Vash that they are about to invade his home. I also think it is interesting, how Nightow then pans to Wolfwood, dark-eyed and serious, as if he just made up his mind about something. Most likely that he is not okay with innocents being killed just so Vash feels bad. Again a contrast to Keele, who was willing to kill a random woman so he gets to Vash.
And again, Vash is put into a trolley problem. Kill Rai-Dei to move to Home faster and maybe rescue more of his close people or waste time to keep Rai-Dei alive, but risk losing close people. For many people, it would be an easy decision (if you call killing someone easy), but Vash needs to save every person. If everyone is family and thus equally important, no one is. Rai-Dei literally tells him that he came here to die, but Vash cannot accept that.
03: Samurai Showdown
And while Vash hesitates, Wolfwood deems Vash’s home as important enough to interfere and to get ready to fight Rai-Dei. He hides himself behind his sunglasses, but still gets spotted. And I like that about Wolfwood, that he is able to decide for himself who he is ready to protect and how far he is willing to go.
Damn, Rai-Dei just called Vash not human. Together with his weird fixation on the fight, he comes off as a weird monster hunter. Poor Vash.
Are you talking about them or about yourself, Wolfwood? Wolfwood's selfhate is on the platter here.
I know it is Vash’s ideals, but that he stalls and takes so much time to “Make Rai-Dei cast away his sword” while the people he calls his family are in danger, always reads as so cold, like he has no real connection to them. Like I said, if everyone is important, no one is.
Why is Wolfwood so weirdly fixated that guns are better than swords? Why is he so offended by this? This whole shout feels so out of the place! I stay by my stance that in the two years Rai-Dei talked Wolfwood’s ear off about how much better katanas are and how much more graceful and yadayada and Wolfwood was just so close to ending him after like five hours of that.
04: Wolfwood
Oh, fuck. It goes down! That front page?! Four being the unlucky number connected with death. Wolfwood holding onto the punisher, that reaches out of the panel, but also wraps kinda around him. The way he crumbles the cigarette package in his hand and his forlorn, bitter look on his face, away from us and staring at something off the screen. Chef’s kiss. I hate it *thumbs up*
It looks like a memory of the past. An impression that Wolfwood left after they have already parted ways. He looks so incredibly lonely and burdened here. And at the same time, a shield to somebody.
Hand on the trigger!
God, this page. The contrast to the wild action the page before, the weird, blurred lines surrounding Wolfwood, Vash, Rai-Dei’s end and Wolfwood’s cold stare with pinprick eyes. It gives you a feeling how quickly everything went down.
I’ve thought about Rai-Dei’s train of thought. Surely, there is the whole: “I cannot start anew! All the time I’ve used to become this! The sins I’ve committed!” But… it feels more like him acting upon his way of the warrior. If you cannot win the fight, you die in it. Kinda like a version of seppukku or kamikaze, which all kinda rounds back to bushido and societal standards.
I am sorry, what does that even mean?! The blade is still in its original position? What? No, he took the sword, wrapped his finger around the trigger and was about to thrust it into Vash’s back. This always reads for me as Vash in denial. Why wouldn’t he have pulled the trigger? I feel like I am too dumb to understand this panel.
This may be a controversial take, but hear me out. Vash’s recurring modus operandi! He gives other people all the agency to act as they like and he reacts to them. Is this a way to unconsciously have no real responsibility for the outcome? It puts him apart from every normal human and puts him more into the position of a mightier being. And, damn, at the same time this must sound completely naive and away from any kind of sound mind to Wolfwood. It is a way of life that is possible only if you have no connection to other people! As long no one cares about him, he can do as he pleases with his own health. But here he is confronted with somebody who cares enough that he killed for Vash and because of Vash’s denial of action. Vash could act in the past as he liked, because he didn’t share his path with someone who cares for him! But now, if he gives all his agency away, not only his opponent may act as he wishes, his partners may also act upon their wishes. Wolfwood’s wish was to save Vash! And I understand why Wolfwood may feel like the deed was pushed onto him by Vash.
Wolfwood hates his way of life and he judges himself harshly. It defines his whole being. At the same time he is in a position of no real agency. To protect the orphanage and survive himself as a former orphan, he needed the power that his position brings. Like we all said, a man between a rock and a hard place. He calls himself a devil! You can’t put yourself down more, especially as a priest. I get that Wolfwood does not really expect Vash to shoot, that he acts out of anger here. But damn, this is a cry for punishment, something, some human reaction from Vash. And Wolfwood does not get it.
I love the detail of Vash having his finger pointedly away from the trigger.
And while I get that Vash does see Wolfwood for who he really is and not for what kind of front he puts up, this is not the time to put him down a peg. The man just killed someone for Vash, he is hurt like fuck and is lashing out. And what Vash says comes off as pity and judging. It is Vash not understanding humans and especially Wolfwood at all through the lens of his ideals. Which is so fucking weird when he is at the same time spot on about Wolfwood’s inner workings! He goes like half the way and then just stops. There is no follow up from Vash to find the reason why Wolfwood is so determined to play the devil or why his heart cries out. And that is a very big flaw in Vash and how he interacts with people. He gives people all the agency to control the furthering of their relationship (until he runs away). The problem is Wolfwood never learned to open up, from what we can tell, he never was in a space safe enough to learn that. Wolfwood is self reliant to a fault, because he had to. Both of their flaws and past makes it impossible right now for them to understand each other. And that makes me just sad. Wolfwood does so much to understand Vash and Vash stays still.
Thanks, I’ll take that for my nightmares.
Girls, I love you, but you had him! You had him already! But you chose to use all of your vacation days and let him go!
This whole scene reads so weird, like Keele did not happen. XD I love how especially Milly are like: Yep, we’re friends! And I love how they include Wolfwood, even though they seem to have forgotten his name. Guy left an impression, at least.
Damn, Meryl must be squished with the guy kinda climbing out the window from behind her! But good from her to ask Jessie to check the wreckage out! Saving people is always the right thing to do!
The girl is calling out for Vash. Is she the one with the puppy crush? But calling out for him when your literal ship fell from the sky is weird. I feel for Brad.
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Are the ArchieSonic comics actually an 80's/90's syndicated cartoon? Episode 64 - 65: Two Multi-part Finale (part 10: Sonic the Hedgehog #247)
Welcome back to my investigation of how Archie Comics’ Sonic the Hedgehog series was actually a syndicated cartoon from the 80’s and 90’s!
Last time I discussed Sonic Universe #50, where Shard made his heroic final stand, Metal Sonic went from being a repeatedly blown up chump to a very, very scary robot, and Eggman implied that he had something big in the works. This brings us to Sonic the Hedgehog #247, the final pre-boot issue of the series. Team Fighters had chased the Death Egg all the way to its fueling station in the Arctic, and joined forces with the Arctic Freedom Fighters (who thankfully were NOT characters that Ken Penders was claiming copyright for).
The heroes smashed their way into the base and were surprised to be joined by none other than Silver. At the end of the Secret Freedom Fighters’ arc in Sonic Universe, Harvey Who had told Silver that he’d figured out who Silver’s supposed traitor was, and offscreen he explained everything he’d found out. Then at the end of Endangered Species, Shard had contacted Silver to tip him off that Team Fighters were heading to the Arctic, hence him showing up here. Sonic really didn’t have the patience for any more of Silver’s shenanigans, which is fair when you remember that Silver tried to first kill him, then Rotor, and then blamed the comatose Antoine, all in the name of stopping his supposed traitor. But Tails put together that Silver was part of a team working with Elias (or “the true king,” as they were now forced to refer to him as), and convinced Sonic to give him one more chance.
If Silver was trying not to get Sonic angry again, he was failing abysmally.
Back in New Mobotropolis, Nicole and Team Freedom were officially presenting the newly rebuilt Castle Acorn when the latest in a series of accidents involving the city’s nanites occurred.
Fortunately , Cream and Cheese had finally managed to figure out what was causing all these problems around the city. And so Cream took her theory to Rotor.
Meanwhile back up North, Silver was explaining to everyone why Sally was his “traitor.”
When Sally saved the planet from the world roboticiser only to fall victim to it herself, she inadvertantly kicked off a series of events that would doom the planet anyway. Sonic still wasn’t thrilled to have Silver there, but since the time traveller had now dedicated himself to saving Sally like the rest of them, Sonic let him tag along. Their first task was to infiltrate the Death Egg from below via an underwater tunnel.
Whoops. Well that didn’t work - Eggman’s forces attacked and sounded the alarm. And Eggman, who was busy getting ready for his next big move, was not pleased with this new development.
“Albert,” you say? Well if there was any doubt left that Eggman had already met Dr Wily - and after hinting that Metal Sonic would be working with Bass, there really shouldn’t have been - it seemed pretty clear now.
Back in New Mobotropolis, Team Freedom had laid a trap for the Tails Doll, expecting it to try and destroy the city’s power plant when it was left unsupervised. Sure enough, the creepy little jerk took the bait. There was just one small problem. …well actually, it was a large problem.
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again anyway - I don’t know what was going through Evan Stanley’s idea when she was drawing the Tails Doll’s kaiju form, but I guess I get the genital general idea of what she was going for. 😛
Back in the Arctic, things were looking pretty grim for Team Fighters and their friends. Mecha Sally had been authorised to shoot to kill, and she and her brain laser (called the “Boom Fant” by Ian Flynn) were on a rampage. Tails knocked Sonic out of the way of her point-blank shot, but both of them were hurt in the process.
Amy tried to protect Sonic and Tails as Mecha Sally moved in for the kill, and I feel like in the original timeline that Silver’s future was a result of, this is where all three of them died. However in this time an injured Silver swooped in at the last possible second and used his psychokinesis to disable Mecha Sally.
Unfortunately they only got a few seconds to enjoy their win before another Genesis Wave went off and the world faded to white.
And… that’s it. That’s how the preboot era of ArchieSonic ended. With the creative team facing the incredibly daunting task of having to take the story in an entirely new direction, the incredibly well-timed Sonic and Mega Man crossover gave them an extra few months to figure out where to go afterwards. So this latest Genesis Wave was set off by both Eggman and Wily, who used it to reshape both of their worlds.
Sonic’s world was changed to one more like the games, set after the latest game in the series, Sonic Generations - wow, that makes me feel old - while Mega Man’s world was catapulted forward in time to after Mega Man 10. Combining their technology and robots, Eggman and Wily captured all of Sonic’s friends, transformed them into “roboticised masters,” and tasked them with retrieving all seven Chaos Emeralds. This would allow them to set off one last Genesis Wave that would essentially make them gods. Just like last time, Sonic transformed into his super form - this time with Mega Man joining him - and attempted to restore their worlds to how they were. While Mega Man was successful, Eggman threw a hissy fit and got in the way of Super Sonic, which… well… broke reality.
The end result of this was a rebooted world for Sonic, absent of not just the characters that Ken Penders had claimed copyright over, but all the characters created by anyone who wasn’t part of the current creative team at the time. I guess that Archie wanted to play it safe and prevent any further copyright snafus from happening, and considering that Ken Penders wasn’t the only former employee who gave them trouble, I think this was probably the right decision. But it was nonetheless a decision that had a heavy impact on the pre-crossover storylines, most of which were either quickly resolved or just discarded entirely. The Secret Freedom Fighters no longer existed (except for Silver, who was doing his own thing), and neither did Geoffrey St. John. Naugus was still around and causing mayhem in Mobotropolis, safe from the purge due to him having originally been introduced as a character in the SatAM cartoon.
But he quickly ran away with his tail between his legs and didn’t return for quite awhile. Team Freedom and Team Fighters were dropped in favour of bringing back the Freedom Fighters, who had been scattered across the planet so that they could be reintroduced one by one.
Rotor had gotten buff and was busy building the team’s new mobile flying base, the Sky Patrol.
Antoine was no longer in a coma and had been assigned guard duty of “Uncle” Chuck, who was now no longer Sonic’s literal uncle but more of a “uncle to all.” I believe that was one of the dreaded SEGA “mandates,” as the Sonic cast were no longer allowed to have relatives (except for Cream, of course). I hated that, but at least Uncle Chuck survived the purge. As did Sonic's former pet dog Muttski, who had undergone what was probably the most dramatic change.
Same, Sonic and Tails. Same.
Bunnie was undercover among the Egg Army, and had gone back to being a cyborg.
And Sally was no longer a robot, and was infiltrating the Death Egg but had to leave in a hurry when Eggman sent Metal Sonic after her. Within a few issues the team were all reunited, along with Big and Cream, just as everything went to Hell. Remember how I said that Eggman broke reality?
Yeaaaaaaaah. This led into a massive adaptation of Sonic Unleashed, which went on for almost the entirety of the rest of the series. This was a pretty brilliant idea in my opinion, as a game that was so heavily focused on travelling the shattered planet was the perfect way to re-introduce Sonic’s new world. We got to visit a variety of different locations and meet friends and enemies both familiar and new. Mighty, Ray, Lupe and Dulcy all returned with new looks and backstories, as did the former Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad and most surprising of all, Breezie. And a bunch of new characters quickly became fan favourites, such as the pronghorn sisters Cassia and Clove, the underwater mobians Coral, Pearly and Razor, and Shadow's new dark nemesis, Eclipse.
The reboot era of ArchieSonic lasted for over three years, but eventually it came to an abrupt end when SEGA pulled the plug. This leaves the last two (completed) arcs in post-reboot ArchieSonic for me to talk about: Terror in the Skies, the end of the Sonic Unleashed adaptation in the main book, and The Case of the Pirate Princess, a Chaotix arc that ended Sonic Universe. Even though it came after the Unleashed adapation ended, I'm going to be talking about the Chaotix arc first. Terror in the Skies feels like the best way to end this series. However I will be taking a bit of a hiatus, as I’m currently preparing to move overseas. So please be patient and wish me luck, and I'll be back with these three goobers before you know it!
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This may sound silly, but I really appreciate your openness about being genX. I feel like even within fandom, there's this underlying ageism around fandom, like you're not allowed to like things past your 29th birthday?? I suspect this is related to the post you shared about genX and milennial folks growing up when fandom was still "weird", and I'm hoping that this will change as genZ ages. I hope that when I'm 80, my retirement home will have cosplay days, you know?
Aww, thank you! I was definitely more vague about it when I first got onto Tumblr and into GF fandom, but eventually I did realize that like, if nobody actually talked about being older, then it would just perpetuate this sense that older people aren't still around and doing stuff. I hope sometimes that talking about it just serves as an example that shows a way that you can live as you grow older, without having to give up your passion or your interests.
I know that when I first got into fandom, in the early 80s, I was joining fan-groups that were, necessarily, run by adults (in their 30s-50s). I mean, because to run a fan-group, or organize a convention, you had to be an adult who could handle money and enter into contracts and stuff. I went to conventions and met a lot of older people, too.
There just weren't any distinctions based on age at that time. There wasn't any sense that fandom wasn't for adults, because fandom as it was understood at that time had *originated* with adults. I mean, I'm going back to the 30s, when Worldcon started; or like, the "save Star Trek" campaign of the 60s, which was spearheaded by adults (mainly women, many of whom were extremely into Kirk/Spock).
That was definitely still the feeling in fandom when I was getting involved in the 80s. And I benefited from adults who were really welcoming to a 14 year old, and really encouraging of my earliest efforts in fanfic and fan-art. I met plenty of people in their 50s and 60s who were clearly successful, independent adults, and this was just their thing. Genre fandom is no more "childish" than, say, sports fandom, which is extremely mainstream.
This weird undercurrent of ageism in fandom is very new. And usually it seems like it's pretty misogynist in its expression.
The thing about your life and your interests is that there's really no age at which you need to stop being You. Maybe you'll enter into a phase of life in which whatever you're doing, be it family or career or lifestyle, takes up too much of your time for you to spare much energy for the kinds of fandom activities you once enjoyed, and that's okay. It's quite a different thing from thinking you'll hit age 25 or 30 and say "welp! I'm not allowed to be a fan of Star Wars any more!"
It doesn't usually work like that. I think people who think it does work that way are overly concerned about what *they think* "society" will think of them for still having... interests. And like, man, I get that. There's a lot of social milieus out there that can be really unforgiving of deviation from their norm, and if you're trapped in that, it sucks, and it takes a lot of emotional energy to withstand it, let alone stand up to it.
I got lucky, I think. I was always open about my interests and activities. There are people in my life who haven't really *understood* it, but they don't give me grief over it. But I also have to point to those fandom adults I met as a young teen, for giving me the feeling that it was okay to be "weird", even once you were an adult.
I expect I'll still be reading fanfic and drawing fan-art when I'm old, even if I have no idea right now what new loves and passions will come along. (That's the endless fun of a life in fandom, really. You never know what wonderful thing you'll discover next.) We are *definitely* going to have cosplay in the retirement home. ;-)
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Love the comic!! I was wondering if you have any tips for people who want to get into digital art? What program do you use?
Hope you have a good day :D
oOF so that's hard cause it's been kind of a really long journey and a lot of the stuff I've picked up has been from watching youtube, looking stuff up, and only recently a few classes here and there. So I don't have any TIPS but I CAN walk you through my digital art journey, if you will. (also if you don't wanna read this all: I use Clip Studio Paint Pro, and a Wacom Intuos Pro)
SO. my first tablet was a cheap, tiny square thing that cost 30 dollars and connected to my labtop via a usb cable. It only lasted a few years. It was a Huion drawing tablet, don't know what kind but a brief search shows they're still selling tables for around 30-50 dollars and they look WAY better than the one I started with. so if you wanna start digital drawing but don't wanna buy a super expensive tablet at first in case you don't like it, I'd suggest Huion.
NEXT I used a free digital art program called Fire Alpaca for a while, and since I was new to digital art I didn't really need all the fancy brushes and options that expensive digital art programs had because I just needed to familiarize myself with the basics first.
After a while I wanted an upgrade, but adobe products are super expensive and slowed down my cheap broken laptop. Eventually I ended up finding Clip Studio Paint Pro, which I bought for like 40 dollars (I think it's 50 dollars now) and has been my faithful companion ever since. It helps that it's made specifically for digital illustration/manga creation too, since I like making comics.
somewhere along the line my Huion tablet started sporadically cutting out and losing pen pressure so I asked my mom for a better one, since I'd proven that I was serious about digital art, and I ended up getting a Wacom Intuous Pro for christmas (also a tablet without a screen, I've found from using others ipads that I kind of hate screen tablets haha)
WHICH SURPRISED ME cause I thought they were WAYY too expensive. That's the tablet I still use today but I wouldn't suggest buying it, the charging port broke multiple times and after the warranty expired there wasn't much I could do about it, so I had to switch to using the wireless option and charging the battery via a different battery charger I bought on amazon and the whole thing was very annoying and BAD, I made do cause I can't afford a new tablet but the charging port breaking is kind of a big fucking deal :/ \
anyway thank you for your interest and giving me the chance ot ramble haha
AH SORRY I THOUGHT I POSTED THIS THE DAY I GOT IT. My bad i saved it as a draft instead haha.
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Solution
Each time Vahri’a’s head topples to the wall beside, the bombination of the upper level floods into a roar of chatter and clanking about. Whether it detracts from his concentration or enhances it, who’s to say?
The brief of the assignment is written in brilliant bold letters at the top of his workbook — decidedly kept separate to his grimoire, in preservation of his immaculate handwriting. Aim: To transpose Ruin into an orb of 5 ilm diameter and reduce channeling time to 50%. It should be simple. In theory.
Yet underneath, the contents is shy and ashamed, hiding behind scribbled ink. Attempts to transpose the sigil come across more as abstract art than a workable geometry.
He has been here for two bells now.
The lichyard of the basement is all he has to bounce off of. A vacuum of thought. There are a couple of skilled casters taking the opportunity to practice reps in the arena, but this is a relatively quiet and private affair he easily tunes to muffled phonetics. Other arcanists often work at home, but his is a hole in the wall.
Way off to the other side of the circular expanse, however, is another he hadn’t noticed on his first sweep of the room. She’s a short and wiry Seeker of the Sun, all ankles and wrist bones, in a set of suspenders and rolled trousers. Rendered in autumn colours, with auburn hair and patches of brown skin woven with burgundy burns. She adjusts her glasses every so often and squinting through them as she makes her way through one of the guild’s many tomes. She’s got piles of books set off to the side of her, none opened. Sprawled onto her desk of discarded crates are a number of parchment pieces, each playing with the same sigil that’s been etched into his mind for the evening.
As if alerted by the Twelve, her gaze darts up.
He catches it, lips thinning and stretching — not into a smile, but rather a sheepish impulse.
She grins proper, the tips of her ears and the corners of her lips stretched upwards.
He raises a hand in a bare wave.
She gets up. Gathers her materials. Strides over to him.
He isn’t going to get any work done.
“I didn’t realise you spent your studying time in the Gate, Vahri’a. Thought you’d be the type to skitter home after every class.” He doesn’t know her name, but she talks with the lilt of someone who’s known him for ages and has the right to affectionately resent his withdrawn tendencies.
“Don’t you do that?” he asks, returning his gaze to his work. An ear remains lofted in attendance of his fellow arcanist, who assails it with laughter.
He supposes ‘assail’ isn’t the right word. There’s a distinct flutter to it that makes it a bubbly, digestible affair…
“I can never concentrate in here. There’s too many people milling about usually. But I needed the research, and the Navigator heard my prayers, wheeling everyone away from the Gate for once. Save our quietest classmate. But no, I study at the Docks. The noise doesn’t bounce around on the open sea.”
“Did you have much luck, then?” Vahri’a asks curiously, looking over her papers.
Given the dissonance between his workstation and hers, he expected her penmanship to be equally dissonant. It’s not quite the steady hand he uses to draw all his glyphs, but hers is neat by certainty. A single, quick stroke marks a circle, a line, and a poke of the pen for the dots. She doesn’t waste time, and her work is all the cleaner for it.
For that, she’s gotten farther than him. She doesn’t conceal her mistakes in a big, black box. All of her experimental failures — even the ones that are excessively silly, like deconstructing the core of the glyph and dispersing it to its arms — are on full display, their page remaining their own domain, with notes scribbled into the margins.
“Working on it still, but I’m stumped,” she admits, showing off a particular sheet. The heart of the spell is circled with great aplomb. The margins scream in all capital letters, which he can only just make out for its colloquialism and alternative spelling: WERE TH FUCK DO I PUT THEES?
“I would assume you keep it where it is,” Vahri’a says, frowning.
“But should you? See here—”
She grabs one of her books from under her arm, setting the rest down beside her — decidedly parking in his study space — and flips through the pages until she reaches a dog eared entry. Gods, did she dog ear a book from the archives? The page falls to a spell of a similar casting time to the one they’re attempting, Bio. She points to the top of the sigil, furthest from where her palm connects to the tome’s spine.
“This largest push is at the end,” she says, circling a more complex set of large circles with her digit. “It’s ‘cause you want to have your aether, let’s say, ‘valves’ opened proper by these little bits so they’re all oiled up to let go of bigger amounts. It makes the spell imbalanced, which isn’t a problem for this one ‘cause it’s all about volatility in the first place. But Ruin’s got to have that trajectory, and let you channel more quicker…”
Vahri’a blinks. He holds the book’s other end to get a proper look, eyes flitting between his grimoire’s open page and her book’s example.
“Now, let me see what you’ve done?” she asks, side-stepping to get a better look at his workbook. Her brow furrows as she sees his work — redacted clouds of meaningless scribble. “Well, you’re no help. Did you just draw a bunch of tits?”
“No,” he says flatly, shaking his head in disbelief. “None of those were correct, so don’t worry for them.”
“But maybe parts of them were. Better to be able to use the scraps than tossing out the whole boar. Walk me through what you tried, then. Or we’re both hopeless.”
She has a point. He hasn’t made any progress thus far, and she has. He may as well take her help rather than spurn it and flunk the coursework.
The work had proceeded for bells, but those bells went by at a ship’s pace. Time speeds to a brisk walk as he explains his theory to her, and she posits some rightful critique — and he does the same for her when they eventually wheel a chalkboard out of the classroom and work that way, each with an eraser and piece of chalk to parry the others’ suggestions aside. But it’s a spar, not a duel — a collaborative effort to better the other.
By the end of it, they’re tired messes fighting off the concentrated La Noscean heat, but they’ve got a working prototype that their tutor might actually accept.
The two fall to a natural silence as they copy the geometry down into their respective books.
“Hey, Vahri’a.”
“Mm?”
“You don’t remember my name, do you?”
Air skids to a halt in his throat.
“Ah…”
There’s that laughter again. Gradated and effervescent. Like a glass of champagne.
“Gods, you’re the worst.”
“I’m sorry.” He realises just how much he’s pied off his classmates.
“It’s fine. Remember it this time.” She extends a hand to him. “H’nemti. But you can call me Nem.”
“Are you sure?”
“... About my name?”
“About the nickname.”
“If it means you’ll remember it, then I’ll take what I can get.”
The rest of the eve is little, but precious. Their work is preserved in ink, its dust dissipated. He says his formal goodbyes after checking his bag twice over, and she waits for him without poking at his habit. They ascend the steps in a close file.
Every so often, she turns back to chat with him, her merriment skewing her glasses one way. By the end of it, he manages the littlest of smiles, and hers carves dimples into her cheeks.
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March 12
Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Psalm 1:3 [Those who delight in the law of the LORD] are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither.
Deuteronomy 30:19-20 So choose life in order that you may live… 20 by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him.
Proverbs 23:23 Buy the truth, and do not sell it…
Matthew 25:23 His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
Isaiah 1:19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat of the good of the land.
May you not call “good” evil or “evil” good, but acknowledge the righteousness of God's judgments, for only He knows the hearts, and His ways are not only holy, but also redemptive, not willing that any should perish. Numbers 16
May you be as willing, when directed by the Lord, as Aaron was when he ran toward the plague at the word of Moses, to step out in obedience for the sake of others, giving no thought of personal concern but trusting God to see you through to complete the work He has given. Numbers 16
May you be ready to seek God for those who contend against you and the work God has given you. Numbers 16:46-50
May you marvel at, and walk in, the grace of God Who understands our failings and not only punishes sin, but will do wonders and show signs to forestall and prevent further rebellion and hardheartedness among those who are, and calm fears, settling worries among those who do. Numbers 17
May your walk show the green leaves of new life ever-springing forth from the Spirit of Christ, bearing the beauty of the Lord and the fragrance of His love as the blossoms of the flower, and demonstrate the fruitfulness of the faithfulness of God as you maintain a consistent walk in His Spirit by His grace, that those around may see and have testimony to God's keeping power and trustworthiness. Numbers 17
May you recognize the responsibility that comes with honor, and neither seek for what God has not prepared you for, nor envy what He has given to others, but simply draw close to the Lord in love and gratitude, humbling yourself in obedience to the task He gives you, allowing the Father to bestow His accolades in His time. Numbers 18
May you not seek after or strive for the increase of the world, for the Lord is your inheritance, eternal and indestructible, imperishable, precious beyond telling, over-flowingly sufficient for all needs, and greatly to be envied is any person who accepts and embraces this understanding, walking in the riches, authority, and power of the Father's love. Numbers 18
My child, cast your cares upon Me when you call to Me.
Any time, day or night, I will hear your voice and ransom you unharmed from the struggle that rages around you. Although you fall in the midst of battle and are held, captive and wounded, in the enemy's camp, although you feel as though you failed in your task, overcome by the powers you were confident you would prevail against and have victory over, you are still Mine and I am still with you, mighty to save.
I hear the words of the enemy, those authorities who have no fear of Me, and those principalities who never change their ways, I see the covenant-breaking intentions issuing from their war-filled hearts as they attack even their allies, and I hear their reviling words striking like swords from their mouths, flowing like oil, as smooth as butter, yet aimed for the heart.
I will afflict them, taking them by surprise, bringing them down before they have half-finished their plans, causing their hopes to perish and all their expectations to come to nothing, as I cast them down into the pit which is their lodging, which I have created for all corrupt, bloodthirsty, and deceitful powers, and those who persistently choose to be influenced by them.
But because you have trusted in Me, I will redeem you and heal you and raise you back up, sustaining you and not permitting you to remain where you fell, for you have been interceded for by your High Priest, the One Who has offered Himself as your ransom, and in the unity of the Trinity, We are One in Our agreement, and you are made acceptable in the Beloved. You are sheltered under the wings of Love, far from the terrors that assailed you and the horror that overwhelmed you.
Rest, My child, and know the comfort of My Spirit and see with your eyes the end of those who have eternally rejected Me, even as I plunder the enemy's camp, gathering and restoring those held captive, who have hungered and thirsted for Me. Because the enemy laid their hands on you after I anointed you to proclaim the good news of the kingdom, I brought judgment, just and swift, upon them, releasing those who had lived for so long in darkness, and destroyed that stronghold which had stood for generations, resisting all until you were willing to go forth against them in My name, the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of heaven, and released My righteous indignation against the spiritual wickedness in high places.
You did not fail, My warrior, for you were obedient to the heavenly vision. Rest in Me, be renewed in My Spirit, for the harvest is great and the laborers are few.
When you find obstacles to observing traditional routines, may you turn to God and rely on Him in faith to remove them, for if you are hungry for life in Him, He will in love send His angels to remove the hindrance and reveal a more glorious truth, and give you a more joyous task. Mark 16
May you cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you, for He will never let the righteous fall; therefore you can trust in Him. Psalm 55
May you call to God when you are in distress evening, morning, or noon, for He hears your voice and will save you, ransoming you unharmed from the battle waged against you, though many oppose you, because God, Who is enthroned forever, will afflict those who have no fear of God and never change their ways. Psalm 55
May God hear your prayer and answer your plea, though your thoughts trouble you and you are distraught at the voice of the enemy, which brings down suffering upon you, and at the stares of the wicked, which revile you in their anger, and may He confuse the wicked and confound their speech. Psalm 55
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I’ve finished listening to the Do the Right Thing podcast, after thinking I’d try a couple of episodes and then move on to other things. I am so bad at trying a couple of episodes of anything and then moving on to other things. But I’ve been busy while listening to it, so have been mainly saving up my thoughts about it for when I was finished.
Obviously, I enjoyed it a lot, that’s why I kept listening until I was done the 50-ish episodes. It started out a little shaky, I think it took time for all the people involved to figure out exactly what they were doing. The regulars sounded at first like they didn’t have full confidence in the format and/or their own abilities to carry it, as they kept falling back on painfully shoehorned in stand-up material and/or really cheap things that were barely jokes. The first episode brought in, as their expert, a burlesque dancer, entirely so they could giggle about acknowledging that sex exists, because they didn’t seem sure that they could make anything else funny.
But they relaxed after the first season or so, and it got a lot better. Once the regulars relaxed, the guests seemed more comfortable too, and it helped that they started bringing in more actual comedians. I think most panel shows might take a little while to let the format get out of the way of the comedians so they have room to do their thing.
Having said that, I do think the format was very good. All the rounds had good potential in any given episode, though I might have made the first round (a team is presented with a hypothetical scenario, decides what to do) a little longer as I thought it was the best one. And as with most panel shows, I thought the audience participation one was the weakest. I see why panel shows do that, they probably draw in their audience more by making people think they could have the chance to be part of it. But I also think it’s extremely rare for any audience involvement, from crowd work in stand-up to the “now let’s talk about an audience member’s problem” in Do the Right Thing and that similar round in the Pappy’s podcast, to be better than it would be to just hear the comedians talk about their own stuff. Audience members are never as interesting as they think they are.
But still, it was rare for a whole round to go by without making me at least almost laugh. And that’s a reasonably good standard for a podcast to maintain. A lot of that was carried by the three regulars, who went quite quickly from feeling like forced chemistry to actually gelling very well. It was a good mix, I guess. You can get Danielle Ward’s abrasiveness playing against Margaret Cabourn Smith’s more hesitant nature, then clashing with Michael Legge in the other direction as he does his angry shouty man thing, and then every once in a while Michael Legge ends up alongside Margaret Cabourn Smith marveling at some of Danielle Ward’s most genuinely unhinged comments.
That brings me to what I think really made the show, which is that Danielle Ward is awesome. She was a really good host, which in itself isn’t a skill that everyone – or even every panel show host – has. She could read the pre-written format points with the perfect mix of partly sounding smooth, while partly sounding like she does acknowledge that pre-written things are awkward. She was good at making sure everyone was included. She was quick on her feet when it came to making someone expand on a story if it sounded interesting, or poking at people if she knew they had something that would fit well into the current discussion. And, around all the pre-written format stuff and planned stories from guests, she managed to let her own humour come out in a really natural way. She was one of the few people who almost never sounded like she was shoehorning in material, she’s just funny when she says what comes into her mind.
I’d written before about my options for the next big thing to listen to, and had lamented that I don’t love how much of my favourite comedy that I’ve heard before, and how much of the comedy I’m most interested in finding next, can be described as two (or, sometimes, three) white men talking to each other in a studio. So I’d sort of half-jokingly said that Do the Right Thing would be a good addition to my list because at least it’s not just two white men talking to each other in a studio. Jokingly because obviously I do not actually have a diversity quota on the comedy things I pick to listen to, I just pick out the ones that look most interesting, but half- because I guess I do sort of appreciate having a bit of diversity in there.
And that’s not just for diversity quota reasons, as I quickly found while getting into this show. Having women involved with a panel show as regulars is fun in a substantial way, in really little things that I wouldn’t have thought of before hearing it. The way the hypothetical stories were about women around half the time, and every time a story was about a woman I briefly thought “Why did she make this one about a woman?” before realizing that’s a ridiculous question. Made me realize how ingrained the male default is in shows like that, even on really small parts of it.
I hesitate slightly to write this, because I don’t know if I’m really in the right politically to think this or if it makes sense, but I do like that they didn’t change some of the things about panel shows that some other people, including some reasonable and feminist and right-thinking people, would suggest are a way to make it more woman-friendly. I’m thinking of some comments that smart and good people, including female comedians, have made about early Mock the Week being bad for the women because it was all competitive, combative, abrasive male comedians jockeying for position and cutting each other up and women don’t get along well in that kind of environment.
I’ve said before that I feel a bit guilty for how much I like early Mock the Week, not despite its bearpit elements but because of them. I’m sure it was terrible for the comedians involved (the male ones and the two or three female ones who managed to get on), and terrible for comedy as a whole. I can see how in later Mock the Week, they made better comedy because people were more collaborative than competitive, and managed to build on each other’s jokes instead of just jumping all over each other with the first thing they could find. But still, it does bug me sometimes when I see people say the earlier, competitive show was male-centric because women don’t like that stuff. I do, I’m kind of sorry to say, like watching people be competitive and combative and abrasive at each other.
To go even further off topic for a moment, it probably comes from my involvement in sports, and how many times I’ve seen promotions for “girl-friendly” camps or events or teams or whatever, to encourage female participation in sports, because this event or team or whatever focuses on fitness and fun over competition and it’s not so intense. Some of the stuff I’ve seen said about Mock the Week reminds me of that, that girls don’t like it because it’s too intense. I saw Milton Jones say something like that once and immediately thought he was being a misogynistic dick, and then I saw Jo Brand say something similar and thought, okay, maybe this does hold true for some women.
But not all of them, and I liked the way Do the Right Thing (back on topic, don’t mind the digression) showed ways you can make a panel show less male default-y but don’t have to make it soft and non-competitive to be girl-friendly. Because this had all the abrasive stuff that you’ll expect in a panel show, and I hadn’t even realized how much I just expect that to be relegated to men until I heard Danielle Ward doing it, and realized it sounded a bit surprising in a woman’s voice.
Even more than that, I think I found it odd to hear the other side of it played by a woman, when Danielle Ward would direct some of the most classic panel show would-be-an-autocue-joke-if-it-were-TV-but-it’s-not-so-she’s-just-reading-off-notes barbs at Margaret Cabourn Smith. Some of them felt really harsh, until I realized it’s exactly the stuff that male comedians throw at each other on panel shows all the time, but I almost never hear women do it. Danielle Ward didn’t make it any gentler for this “women’s version”, but I think her jokes along those lines were a lot funnier than the average one you hear from, say, Jimmy Carr on 8 Out of 10 Cats. Maybe because she wasn’t falling back on misogyny, and had to find things to say about Margaret Cabourn Smith besides the stock sexist ones you hear from someone like Jimmy Carr. But she also wasn’t doing what you’d hear from a more progressive male-led panel show, which would be to go easier on the women altogether. She didn’t go easy on anyone.
I enjoyed listening to Danielle Ward talk an equal amount of shit about Margaret Cabourn Smith and Michael Legge, about the male and the female guests. I think her autocue-style jokes were more fun because they weren’t on an autocue, they were on paper, because it wasn’t a TV show with a room full of writers, it was a podcast where Danielle Ward wrote most of the scripts herself, and only a couple of other people had credits for “additional material”. But I get the impression that it was mostly her, because most of the jokes are in her style. This makes them a lot funnier than whatever generic thing a writer’s room wrote for Rob Brydon to say while introducing the WILTY guests.
(I’m feeling the need at this point to mention this one joke that made me think “Jesus Christ, Danielle Ward can go really harsh when she wants to.” They had on Matthew Crosby and Ben Clark from Pappy’s Fun Club, and Danielle Ward introduced one scenario by saying it exists in a world where people have figured out that Tom Parry is the Greg Davies of Pappy’s, while Matthew Crosby and Ben Clark are the Steves and Mareks. Which is, you know, a pretty good burn. Managed to hit four comedians at once, by pointing out the obvious fact that Steve Hall and Marek Larwood of We Are Klang were much less successful than the other member Greg Davies, and by suggesting that two members of Pappy’s were in for similar fates. But I didn’t think it was that good a burn, which is why I was surprised when every person on the panel, reacted as though she’d just stood up and driven a scythe though a person’s heart. They all protested with the general vibe of “Oh my God I cannot believe you just said that”, and Matthew Crosby felt the need to say that Steve Hall is a writer on one of the most successful comedy shows on TV. Which is true, I’m sure writing for The Russell Howard Hour must be a good steady gig, even if maybe 0.5% of the people in the world who know Russell Howard’s name also know Steve Hall’s.
Anyway, the point is that Crosby’s statement made me remember that time in 2007 when Steve Hall went on Daniel Kitson’s Triple R radio show, and spent two entire episodes talking about how miserable he was because his girlfriend had just left him. He did not name this girlfriend, and I think in some posts I’ve made before, I’ve implied that it took some detective work to figure out who she was. But the clues really weren’t subtle; one was that Daniel Kitson said this ex-girlfriend was in The Loves and asked Steve what instrument she played, to which Steve replied, “The bass and the scythe through a man’s heart.” Which is the sort of thing that probably seemed more acceptable to say before the rise of the incel movement, though it hardly stood out because almost nothing that happened during those old Triple R Graveyard episodes was all that acceptable. Anyway, The Loves were a weird band that had a lot of different members over the years, but they only had one female bass player in 2007, and that was Danielle Ward. When I remembered this, I revised my initial belief that the panel had over-reacted to a mildly sick burn, and agreed with Matthew Crosby that, okay, Danielle Ward wins harshest pre-written/throwaway joke made by a panel show host.)
Anyway. The show is different from a lot of panel shows in that it’s mainly the creation of one person, Danielle Ward. Not entirely, obviously. I think their producer Ben Walker also had a hand in creating it, and as I said other people are sometimes given credit for helping to write scripts. But it seems to be mainly her, coming up with the rounds and the material and the ideas. And having the showrunner actually appear on every episode of the show does seem to be a good thing, there’s no sense of disconnect between the intent and what actually gets said, as can sometimes happen in shows like this.
This brings me to another thought about Do the Right Thing, which is that now that I’ve seen/heard both, I can have an opinion on the Hypothetical controversy. Basically, when Hypothetical was first announced, Danielle Ward went on Twitter to be angry that it was pretty much the same premise as Do the Right Thing, they took her idea and put it on TV fronted by two men who were more famous than her and without her involvement. Then later she retracted it and said it turns out the show isn’t all that similar so it’s okay. I read about this a while ago, but couldn’t say what was true, having not heard the podcast.
I’ve heard it now, and… yeah, they’re pretty fucking similar. Not exactly the same or anything. But the main round on Hypothetical is pretty much the same premise as the main round on Do the Right Thing. Two teams with two guests each that change each week (though Do the Right Thing had team captains as well as Hypothetical didn’t) have to say what they’d do in a particular situation. One host reads out the situation and talks them through their answers (Josh Widdicombe/Danielle Ward), and then a different host (James Acaster/Ben Walker) gives out points for the best answers.
The terrible celebrity wall round on Hypothetical is a very similar premise to Do the Right Thing’s Ask and Expert round, but a worse version of it. Ask an Expert brought in people from different professions or walks of life so they could talk about their experiences, and it was sometimes interesting to hear about a way to live life that I wouldn’t think about much. Definitely more interesting than it is to hear from a random famous person, like Hypothetical did. But both rounds involve trying to guess what someone from outside the comedy panel would do in a certain situation.
Both shows have a quickfire round, though on the podcast it’s called Do the Wrong Thing where they have to pick the most incorrect answer to a bunch of scenarios in quick succession, and on Hypothetical they pick the most correct answer. Because I guess ripping off the “reverse rules” round’s specifications would have been a bit too obvious.
Like I said, it’s not exactly the same. Do the Right Thing compared the ideas to “real” answers, according to advice they’ve found in survival books or things like that, while Hypothetical just compared the idea to what James Acaster decided. Do the Right Thing tells absurd stories but then gives scenarios that could possibly happen, while Hypothetical goes more absurd. Hypothetical had a gratuitous wall of celebrities (I did like the TV show, but I found that round really grating) that wasn’t in the podcast, and Do the Right Thing has gratuitous audience participation that wasn’t in the TV show. Hypothetical had little sketches where they acted things out, and Do the Right Thing obviously didn’t, I can’t see how that would work on an audio-only podcast.
It's also significant that this isn’t that original an idea. I’m sure people have been sitting around playing “let’s imagine what we’d do in fake situations” for hundreds of years, and Danielle Ward doesn’t have a patent on that parlour game. But does she have a patent on turning it into a panel show format with two teams of comedians who answer the questions via predetermined rounds while a couple of hosts gives out points for it? I think it’s fair to say she should at least have a right to be offered the option to be part of it if that gets put on TV. I know it’s fairly normal to take an audio or stage thing to TV but replace the people with more famous ones (in fact, Do the Right Thing tried exactly that with Claudia Winkleman), but I’m pretty sure the original people are usually involved in some capacity. Some capacity where they don’t find out about it via the official public announcement and then complain about it on Twitter.
I can also understand the argument that it seems like a specific betrayal to have Matthew Crosby involved with Hypothetical, as there seemed to be a lot of crossover between Do the Right Thing and Pappy’s Fun Club. There was that episode when the Pappy’s came on Do the Right Thing, both podcasts ran for many of the same years and seemed to be pulling from the same general pool of guests (comedians at a similar level of fame in each, lots of people who did both), and were both produced by Ben Walker. It’d be fair to be pretty upset if your fellow guy from medium-fame podcast land took your idea and put it on higher-fame TV without telling you. I believe I’m on Danielle Ward’s side of that one.
To be honest, Hypothetical is one of the shows I mean when I talk about panel shows that have that little disconnect between the performers and the material, which made it really noticeable that Do the Right Thing didn’t have that, at least not after the first few episodes. It’s not a perfect show or anything, it had its episodes that dragged a bit like anything else. But I thought it was really well put together.
Also, I feel like I owe Margaret Cabourn Smith an apology. I’ve been holding a vague grudge against her because I found her slightly annoying on the Taskmaster podcast once, and beyond that hadn’t heard her do much, a few Now Show things I think but that’s it. She really grew on me throughout this podcast. She was the only one of the three regulars who didn’t draw me to the podcast – I put it in my list because I liked Michael Legge and Danielle Ward and I figured she’d be fine – but by the end I liked her quite a bit too. Her style of reasonable straight character who uses our expectations of her to make it funnier when she says something mean or blue – I do enjoy that style. She also bounced off everyone else really well.
I actually downloaded a few episodes of Margaret Cabourn Smith’s podcast after I finished Do the Right Thing, and I started writing this post (a couple of days ago now) while I was listening to Danielle Ward’s episode of it. Which was fun, it was mostly stories I’d heard Ward tell before on Isy Suttie’s podcast or at some point on Do the Right Thing, but I just enjoy hearing her talk about stuff. They were talking about when they were younger and got crushes on famous people, and near the end, Margaret Cabourn Smith said that now that she’s had a career in showbusiness Danielle Ward must have been on the other side of that, and Ward replied that nope, she’s never had that scenario. And that she’d be flattered and like hearing about it if it had happened, but it hasn’t.
Which is such a weird thing to say, because there is absolutely no way that’s true. I realize she’s not, like, incredibly famous. But some people know who Danielle Ward is, and therefore, I cannot possibly believe that there’s any way she hasn’t constantly had fans being weird about how incredibly attractive she is. There’s no way. No woman who’s as attractive as Danielle Ward and has ever been anywhere near a public career can get away without dealing with that.
She weirdly specifically said she’d be happy if it happened, so I’d like to briefly pause the concerted effort I’ve been making to not mention this all time because I want to be respectful, and say obviously that is what happened here. I heard Danielle Ward as a guest on a couple of different things across the last year or so, I immediately found her very attractive just based on the way she talks and the things she says, I watched her stand-up special Seventeen and thought it was very good and also she was very very attractive, and put Do the Right Thing on my list because I wanted to hear her say more stuff. And then when I started the list, I said I’d only listen to a couple of episodes of this one, but then I listened to all of them because I wanted to hear her say even more stuff.
I mean, it was also because I started it right before moving house and I didn’t want to change podcasts while I was busy with other stuff, and also Do the Right Thing was very funny and well made and grew into itself well, and Michael Legge and MCS were very good, all that other stuff I said about it was true. But just to be clear, I did say all that while trying not to also say “and I have a very large crush on Danielle Ward and want to hear everything she’s ever said.” And then, while writing that, I heard her go on a different podcast and say she’s never had fans with celebrity crushes on her but it would be fun if they did. Come on. That is not possible.
MCS’ whole podcast is about crushes, I listened to Nish Kumar’s episode as well and just wrote a whole post about that one in which I discussed my massive crush on every character from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I think I just really have a thing for any woman who can play the bass and the scythe through a man’s heart.
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Long, rambling, depression/anxiety post incoming. It is me needing to get this shit out, because if I don't I will be non-functional today and I have to be for assorted reasons. (Why the fuck can't I write this shit in the fucking journal I literally handmade for this kind of thing?) Last couple of paragraphs are a lot more positive at least.:
At 1:50 am, I am alone with my brain and I am feeling my age and all the things I lost when I was younger because they were abused out of me. I am talking desires and aspirations. My want to paint and draw was taken from my by my abusive patriarch. My love of being a massage therapist and making Halloween props was taken from my by my ex when he decided to purposely (which he admitted to my face) used my sperm donor's form of abuse to get his way and force the divorce. Well, n that case he didn't aim at those things in particular, they were just casualties of the fallout. It is hard to want to do the things you love when the person you trusted most in the world and you thought was safe to heal around turns on you and breaks you so completely you can't even work much less want to be creative. There is always that lingering paranoia it will happen again, even if you know full and well that you truly are safe and the person you now trust the most has seen you at the absolute worst that other people used to abandon you and still never showed an urge to harm you.
I am healing and I am alloeed to heal in anyway I need even if it's just focusing on working through my anxiety and depression which often leaves me unable to do much physically.
I am very blessed. I thank the gods all the time for it.
But, I am sad and bitter because I am middle aged and have lost so much of myself that I feel like there is no time to get any of it back or even make myself anew.
When you're younger it's easy because 20 years doesn't seem like a big deal. But ehen you're older 20 years is like a ticking time bomb because your chances of your body failing you increases.
I try very hard because I know that it is never too late. I look at Betty White and she was doing things at my age that I could swear she was much younger. Or Helen Mirrin. Hell Catherine Hepburn or Angela Landbury. I mean, yes most of those folks are gone now but they didn't stop living at middle age.
But, I am terrified and sad and bitter and it's 2am and I am alone with my brain and all I see is everything I lost and everything hateful people are trying to take from me and I am too petrified to fight because I have had to fight my whole life just to survive relatively in tact and I am not sure I won.
And, now, I am thinking "oh shit some younger folks are going to see this and it's going to reaffirm their depression and belief we are all doomed." I don't feel we are. I feel in my soul we will be okay. We have been through this shit before. And, I feel as a country, it will get better. We just have to not give in. And, we are tired and bitter, but we are far angrier than we have ever been and I think that will save us as a whole. Anger is a powerful tool when used correctly.
Problem is this rambling post, complete with unexpected tears, is my personal journey has hit a point where I am having trouble working through my fears and bitterness just to reclaim a tiny bit of what I used to love to do. The outside bullshittery is always a stressful sword hanging over me, but Isometimes have to put that thing in the closet so I can breathe long enough to actually take care of me and my small family.
My boo is amazing. I call him Super Spouse for a reason. Somedays, he is literally the reason I get out of bed. I hate not spending time with him. I have never felt so safe and validated and loved and respected. And seeing as how he shares the same types of traumas, he has told me I am often the reason he remains functioning.
I joke that we are such bisexual disasters that together we have a functioning half brain and as long as bills are paid, we and the animals are fed and healthy, and we have a roof over our heads, then we are doing pretty damn good.
But at 2am, when I am alone with my brain, it is easy to forget that, and it is even easier to only see the loss rather than when I have and can have if this hyperfocus on the past would fucking let up.
I am starting to feel a little better having typed this out. Sometimes, I knoe that constantly being connected, not taking breaks from technology, is a big problem for all of us, but today that technology allowed me to work through this shit.
Come on, brain, it's 2:30am and the country may be shit and you have suffered so hard, but your spouse who loves you is sleeping next to you, the animals are all in various stages of pudding as they rest. You love your house. You have actually kept yourself clean and fed, so a win over depression. Yeah, sure, we're stuck in the butthole of the South until Spouse retires because this job actually has loyalty to its employees anf we cannot risk fucking losing that. But, you are not too old yet. You have a body that still does what you tell it even if it creaks more. You can start moving it more if you can embrace and hug these 2:30 am moments and tell the parts that hurt that we are safe and it's okay to feel these things. Everyone feels them. You aren't just surviving anymore, brain. You are actually living even if it doesn't always feel like it. The little victories outweigh the down days now. That is a huge accomplishment, brain. We should be proud of ourselves. We can do this. We can rebuild ourselves. It isn't too late. Think of Betty White, Fran Drescher (she has been through some hells), Helen Mirrin, Lynda Carter... This year hasn't made feeling that very easy, but it isn't "too late". You didn't give up. You did win. I mean, one abuser might be dead and the other you only think about when Spouse does something that completely obliterates another experience that asshole ex gave to you. You are okay, brain. I mean, I eish you would stop giving me intrusive fucked up memories that have zero relevance to the moment at hand, but we are working on that.
Come on, brain. It's 2:45 am. Let's wash our face and go play BG3 until Boo wakes up and we have to get things we don't want to do done and then can maybe go to Spirit as a treat.
We got this. We just spent nearly an hour proving we have survived far fucking worse and today we get to live.
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27 March 2023 5:38 pmpdt Monday
in 2018? I tried looking on the internet for all hit and run occurrences. It was difficult for me to find. 5:40 pmpdt
diarrhea feeling 5:40 pmpdt 😞😖😭
28 March 2023 Tuesday martest
7:47 pmpdt tried to add something about 1-2 hours ago but it would not save. Read previous? Post. I think a piece was deleted or I accidentally forgot to write. The part below my waist- groin/pelvis/hips/butt bones part seems to have gotten smaller. 7:50 pmpdt I’ve heard a story of a 17 year old exposed himself to maybe a little girl around the age 4-6 years old and possibly locked themselves in a bedroom together. And intentionally left out the sister who was probably around 8 years old. I tried to search for it online and I found in the search but didn’t open the page that a 14 year old boy did something to an 8 year old girl. With dugard & Ramsey stuff, we don’t know where Levine & carter draw the line. 7:54 pmpdt last year I thought the incubus was hinting there was a s*x video of the two of us he’s circulating to a mass of people but he did not show it to me and it seemed like I was imagining it until I read some stuff online. Maybe it was one comment that I thought might have alluded to it but I’m not sure. (Vag acid? Pain 7:55 pmpdt) maybe it’s another trick to make me look crazy. And if he really did what insurance would I have if he planned to kill all those people soon? Why would he give me a sign when I was around 13-14 years old to remember and interpret now that he was going to lie about it but then seemingly take it back? With the s*x tape? Was it a deep fake? Is he really trying to con me now? But needs an alibi? So people don’t think that he did something to Ramsey and other little girls when he was teen and older? 8:01 pmpdt still torturing me making it harder to breathe and stealing my bones. 8:01 pmpdt if he was s*xually interested in behati when she was 11, where would he draw the line now? When I was 13-14 years old, it was 1998-1999. 8:03 pmpdt
1:21 am pdt 29 March 2023 Wednesday
I don’t have children and I don’t have a husband left hip bone pain 1:22 am pdt and I don’t expect any favors from anyone. It’s not nice to be lied to in that way. Even if there was a warning. It seemed to be though something I had to figure out on my own Bcz the incubus flip flops all the time and he set up a situation in which he can never be honest 100% of the time. I’m anticipating having a bad fall and. Cracking open like Humpty Dumpty🍳🥚 or getting hit by a car🚗 or dying in a plane ✈️crash.or maybe dying of heart ♥️ failure bcz I can’t breathe 🧘🏻♀️ half the day every day. 1:27 am pdt
1:48 am pdt incubus was extremely harsh in punishment to me after I posted the photo links. He hinted at it after toying 🧸 with me all my life and toying 🧸 with my feelings. I think 💭 what he did to me was a 1000% wrong and unethical to do to me. I disdain him and Q for doing what they did to me. I think they are the worst people in the world 🌎. 1:50 am pdt. I hate incubus. 1:51 am pdt
Bcz of what they did to me I will never forgive them. 1:52 am pdt I think 💭 they are 1000% unethical and selfish. 1:53 am pdt
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I also think it’s safe to say that this is the best version yet, and I’ve been generally very pleased with the tweaks and stability of the product even though it was still very beta when I got my hands on it, but with all the improvements I had hoped that two of PowerDVD’s niggles that have bothered me over the years would have been “fixed”, but unfortunately they have not: Buccaneers is a registered trademark of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers LLC.I really like the way that CyberLink has modernized PowerDVD’s UI, and provided flexibility to show/hide the features that you want to see. This site is neither endorsed, nor sponsored by, nor affiliated with Tampa Bay Buccaneers or NFL Properties LLC.
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how 2 sell zines online, by krad
i had some sick ass ascii art in the header but tumblr borked it oh no
Introduction
this is not a guide on “how to make a handmade zine”, as there’s plenty of fantastic (free!) tutorials on it - such as this, this and this. This is also not a guide of choosing a specific printer for indie creative work or work meant for the convention circuit, as that would likely go out of date quickly.
What this is:
documentation on how I personally print & sell zines on a small scale painlessly, within the US.
documentation with specific tips for kink, controversial, & NSFW artists who face additional and unique payment barriers versus “vanilla” creatives. for example, my specific process does not show my real name to the customer, further blunting any impact a harassment campaign would make.
useful tips on how to sell physical merch on itch.io since it’s not exactly advertised and requires some set-up.
This is not the only way, either, mind; but I’ve done this for a while and like sharing resources. The long-term mirror of this post is on dreamwidth.org. You may repost on sites other than tumblr, but I would encourage you to credit me & link back to the dreamwidth link. (thanks!)
Without further ado ...
Make a Zine
I know this feels like ‘draw a circle, then draw the rest of the f*king owl’, but I have faith in you. There’s some links above that talk to this.
A seamless pre-order process from start to finish can take 1-4 months, depending on the size/complexity of the project, whether you’ve done this before and have set up the backbone, and other factors. Pace yourself! Ultimately this isn’t about the money. I probably just about break even; to me, selling zines is simply a back-up in case if the world wide web goes to shit, and my art would have one last legacy in the physical world.
Prep, Pre-press, & Printing
Three months in advance of your project, I’d start cold-emailing a few printers, if you’re not wanting the hassle of printing off of your mom’s your printer, or your work/library printer. There’s advantages of printing it at home (cheaper, easier to do small quantity runs from 1-25), but when you start hitting 25-50+ zines per run, it may be worthwhile to offload that work.
The biggest reason to cold-email a commercial printer ahead of time is to ask for a paper sample. I’m not going to put the name of my commercial printer of choice here for safety reasons (if you know me on DW, my email, or discord handle, and/or are another kink art creator, you’re welcome to reach out privately for it). That said, any company worth their salt are going to be happy to send you a paper sample for a minor fee, if you inquire for it. Other topics I’d inquire about when cold-emailing printers is:
if they print NSFW (if you need it). Be specific! Are you creating/printing naziexploitation? eroguro? lolisho? Some will only require that you put R18 on the cover. Some will decline. Some don’t care if it’s drawn, only no photography. It’s not personal. A good printer will ask to see an example spread of your content -- send them a screenshot if they ask. Most printers have a higher tolerance for R18 than you think, though I personally find that US based printers tend to be more flexible with creative work than Canadian or Asia printers. You save a buttload on shipping/border hassle if you’re also within the US. (Border police tend to be more picky about “obscene content” than domestic. I know a friend whose zines got seized at the border for perfectly legal work that was posted on Ao3, so it does happen in this day and age.)
Asking for a quote for your imagined product is a good idea, even if the page count or size changes. at worst, you still get a sense of how much it’s going to be for a standard size, and can compare prices like apples to apples.
Minimum/Maximum print runs, if the info is not on their store.
Basic communication. There’s a lot of fantastic printers over in Asia that can run circles around the US/Canadian ones. Moderate english proficiency is not a yellow flag, as long as it doesn’t impact actual quality; but if it does, that can be a problem. Do they reply promptly (within 3 working days)? Are they generally helpful, or rude/ghost you? Is their website easy to navigate and provide resources?
As mentioned, being sent paper samples is lovely so you know what you’re getting into with future projects. When you say ‘I want a cover with 80lb gloss’, you can touch and feel that in your home.
If they do proofs. (ALWAYS ask for proofs). What to look for in proofs: streaky/puddly inks, mis-aligned colors, white borders if your book is full-bleed, pixelated images (maybe you accidentally sent them the low resolution file ... I’ve done this ....), pages that are in the wrong order. Typos! Regardless if it’s an error on your side or their side, this is the stage to correct it.
Contact around 2-5 companies, and pick your favorite regarding price, quality, and convenience.
Creating the Store
Two months out, I’d start looking at stores. There’s a lot of online storefronts out there, with an extensive list of pros/cons that could fill up a whole post. Below is a list of reasons why I ultimately chose itch.io for my specific use-case over the likes of etsy, gumroad, paypal’s online store, and others.
fees (pro): itch.io has some of the most flexible and low-cost fees in the game re: online storefronts. i’m not going to get into it as their FAQ. is a better place for this, but it’s a considerable difference.
convenience & aesthetics (pro): their creator + work pages give you a ton of customization, and it’s pretty easy to post your works on there.
analytics & visibility (pro): most online stores will give you a similar level of analytics as well as being searchable on their internal platform. itch.io is more well known for indie games, and not zines per se, but there’s a rapidly growing selection of zine artists selling their stuff on there given these advantages, and the venn diagram of people buying indie games and zines are ... really similar.
privacy (pro): itch.io has an unique system where they’ll ask you to go through a tax interview before you sell stuff, to verify you are who you are. While the tax prep requires more up-front work, in exchange, not having your real or dead name show up in transactions is huge from a privacy/safety standpoint, if you’re selling semi-controversial artwork.
they’ll allow nsfw ... with caveats. I’ve had kink artist friends kicked off of etsy and gumroad multiple times purely due to the storefronts caving in from harassment campaigns. while I haven’t seen personal friends kicked off from itch.io, however, in the last year they have been starting to move away from an unofficial ‘any and all fictional nsfw welcome’ policy to a murkier one. It’s not what I’d call an immediate red flag, but it does give me serious concerns for the longevity of the platform. For 90% of creative sellers, you’re probably fine, but if you have online stalkers and are used to dealing with these niche issues of stores being yanked down ... yeah. (to that case, I’ve tentatively never heard of anyone being pulled off from ecwid? Haven’t used it but it’s my first backup choice.)
physical merch on itch.io specifically ...
As mentioned above, itch.io was built specifically for indie games; this whole feature of being able to sell physical merch is an extra. It’s a nice one though.
The tl;dr is you have to make “rewards” required, via their refinery toolset (basically an extra free plug-in). Just follow the instructions on that page, you’ll know you did it right when your project page looks like this:
(Go to Dashboard > $your_comic > (more) > rewards)
Make sure that required bit is checked. Below to the bottom-right, you’ll see a space to add an address form, which makes it easy to input addresses even internationally. I would highly encourage you to either test a purchase yourself, or have a friend test it, before going live for your first time.
Pre-Order Process
After you’ve selected your store, i would create 1-3 promotional pieces. These can be as simple as a literal screenshot of a cover or some internal artwork to go along with the basic description of your zines. Don’t write an essay, but cover the basics - how much is it? How would you describe it to the cashier at your grocery store? Is it NSFW or have specific content warnings? What would be its Ao3 tags? Here’s an example of one of mine:
Once when you’ve posted the description to your itch.io page and mocked up a social media post or two .... announce it!
... (good luck!) ...
While you’re waiting for orders to (hopefully) roll in, now’s the time I’d create an excel spreadsheet of your orders that lives on your desktop. Things to have on your spreadsheet:
how many/which zines they ordered, if you have more than one type
date the zine is ordered
email (to contact when the zines are sent, and/or if they forgot to put their address)
(real) name to put on the address
the address
special notes (are they a frequent customer that leaving a little thank-you note for might be worthwhile? special international instructions? did they require another zine sent if it got lost in the mail?)
date that you personally, sent the zines out to (also useful to know if it gets lost)
The date when pre-orders close is when you need to put in the actual print order to your printer of choice. Expect 2-4 weeks turnaround time including proofs.
Generally I order (amount of pre orders)+5 or +10, because you may want to pass some to friends, keep one or two, or there might be a straggler or two who want to buy it after the fact. Don’t do +100 like i did my first time, you’ll be trying to get rid of those for years. :P
Mailing
While you’re waiting on stuff to get sent to you...
the usps store is a pretty basic place to get stamps. :v ur gonna need a lot; and this will be probably your biggest expense other than the print order.
envelopes.com was recommended to me ages ago for all kinds of envelope sizes. I started off sending most of my early zines with a 5x7in envelope that only needed one stamp domestically in the US; just recently brought a size up to be able to send slim (but larger) doujinshi/comics.
Privacy tip: I don’t put my return address on zines going out. The USPS doesn’t particularly like it, and they’re very clear that if it gets lost, it’s not going to be returned. but again, the privacy trade-off of that versus just losing one zine has been extremely worth it. (Out of hand-mailing 100+ zines I think I know of only one customer that I had to re-send a zine to).
Anyway, once when you get your box of printed zines, stamps, and envelopes, it’s time to hand-address them with your info from the spreadsheet. There’s no real skill to this part of the process as much as turning on your favorite music and being careful to address things correctly. I’ll often do these in batches of 10 to reduce errors.
The day before I mail out a batch of ten, I’ll send a short e-mail to the recipients. Generally in the email I’ll mention it’s being sent out, and if it hasn’t arrived within a month, reply back to me and I’ll re-send another. (This covers my ass in case if the system breaks down somewhere, and gives them a specific date to work off on.)
Then, the best part: mailing them out, and marking it as fulfilled in itch.io!
Recap
make the zine & get a printer on hand.
make the itch.io page with the details, where they can click 'buy'
make a pre-order post that said something like 'PRE ORDERS OPEN for x zine, closes on y date (within a month or so). printing and shipping will take 1-2 months.
(hopefully watch orders roll in).
count 'em up when the timeline closes, and send that order to the printer. (plus maybe 5 or so, since there's always a straggler or two).
have printed, and then once you get it, ship 'em out.
Conclusion
It’s a lot of work! I don’t blame you if this wall of text made you think twice about the process; it does require multiple day’s worth of work, and a sense of being organized. If you’re forgetful like me, having things written down is critical.
You will make mistakes the first go-around, but it’s not the end of the world as long as you stay professional emotionally, apologize if it’s your screw-up, and make note of how to avoid it in the future. (Hell, I just had an incident where I got cocky and thought I could skip the proof process. Guess what happened?)
All of this is also fantastic for your resume, by the by - all of the above? Is literally project management 101; milk it for what it’s worth if you need to.
Best of luck!
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a great peace descends... more terror inspired art of a tragic mr. goodsir </3 </3
#the terror#the way i have like 50 stills from the show saved to draw for any time i have like a moment of not working on class work ughh when will i#get to that </3 no idea#the terror amc#in my head i see a beautiful painting with goodsir in the center and seashells and plants etc around his head#but in my heart i do not have the motivation
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